Planning on heading out on Lewisville finally, lake is down to where I can get Jon boat out. Plan on fishing around Arrowhead and Hickory creek areas. I have some Soured corn I have made, and some Range cubes. Will be using CJK’s and Danny king, unless I can catch some Shad early in the am. From what I here, it has been deep, (10-25 ft) that folks are catching them. Have yet to order Chem, or Stubbys, but will soon. Was planning on drifting or Slow trolling, till I find a spot. Any other thoughts? thanks

the hotter the water is the shallower I fish ... always do well like that and always try to find the most oxygenated water possible and that's where the cats will be. deep in the heat is an old wive's tale because there's just no oxygen or very little below the thermocline and it's lacking above it just a little too .. the most oxygenated water where there's no current is on the surface and these times are when the wind is very important ... I"ve found also like when fishing shallow mud flats and there's no wind the fish don't move around much or any at all because they just don't feel good or whatever the case is .. they just sit there when the wind isn;t blowing and you don't see much surface activity at all either... this is when I employ my drag n drop which improves my bite ratio over 1000% sometimes or I don't catch anything at all without the drag n drop out on the mud flats just because they're not moving around any on those hot windless days. I throw out as far as I can and that's usually around 100 to 80 yds and then reel my baits back slowly about 10 to 15 yds and that leaves a scent trail in the water that if a fish detects it they'll track my baits down ... back many years ago I was out on the mud flats fishing with no wind and it was hot too ... water temp was about 90 degrees and higher and for two hours I wasn't catching anything at all ... no bites or anything happening ... so I decided to try the drag n drop for the first time and then I couldn't keep up with the bite they were hitting so fast ... now I drag n drop out of habit every time when I'm fishing where there's no current unless they're biting too fast and sometimes i have to quit doing it so much. When they're biting too fast for me to keep up and I quit doing the drag n drop the bite slows down quite a bit ... sometimes it'll drop off to no bites until I do the drag n drop again. the drag n drop is a very important part of my fishing technique now. so much so that I don't even have to think about it any more because I instinctively do it every cast now and sometimes if I"m in current I forget it's not necessary and do it anyway out of habit. Just remember that in hot water the most important thing is to find oxygenated water ... the best oxygenated water will always hold the most fish right now in 100 degree temps and that's either current or shallows with a good breeze... fresh influx of creek runnoff is best sometimes if you've had some fresh rainfall ... displacement current is pretty good too but not the same ... displacement current is what I call current that's created by the corp letting water out of the dam or generating electricity ... if the lake is stable and no fresh current coming in then on the upper end of the lake there will be a gentle current created when they're letting water out of the dam .... like the water moves in your bathtub from the upper end furthest away from the drain ... when you pull the plug all the water in the tub starts moving towards the drain and this happens in lakes as well and very important to me to pay attention to how the current moves ... I focus on current eddys a lot this time of year as the fish will pile up in these areas where there's a land mass bordering the main river channel that feeds the lake ... just on the edge of the land mass where the mouth of the creek is a displacement current will create a current eddy by the mouth of the river channel and if it's been running like that for long periods of time the fish will stack up there ... in just a 2 hour fishing trip the other day I went and found one of these current eddys and there were lots of fish there .. in just two hours the bite was a little slow but we caught a 36 lb flathead there and a 25 lb blue along with several 7 to 12 lb fish... was doing a learning trip and teaching this young couple how to locate fish and what not and I got all that done in just the couple hours we were out and his wife needed to go to the restroom to tend the rabbit and they decided since we'd caught all those fish we'd go ahead and call it a night. Anyhow .. this is how successful you can be by focusing on oxygenated water this time of year instead of just going out and likely spot fishing .... that's what I call going out and saying this looks like a likely spot and then waste your whole day there without catching anything thinking that just because it's wet there and it looks like a good spot that there's fih there .. just gotta get them to bite and that's hardly ever the case ... then they go home and wife says how did you do? .... oh they just wasn't biting today or something like that when in fact they weren't where the fish were.... always and I stress "ALWAYS" find the fish before you ever cast a line and you'll do a lot better.

I hope tiny is right , been sitting out here in 100 degree heat for about an hour, wind in my face 8-10 mph, 5-8 fow, 2 poles with live blue gills, 2 fresh shad... got a couple of yellow bass nobles and a 7" cat so far. ...

Edited by Bankfisher50 (08/11/1506:54 PM)

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Why do I go fishing? To catch a box of fish and/or some quality time under the sun. Thank Heaven I never fail fishing in Texas, catching box fish or plenty of sunburn.

Above thermocline yes, but big fish don't roam too far off their highways in warm water and usually they go straight to points or sandbar if they come shallow where they know hold shad, they don't patrol shallow water in hot or warm water. In 100 degree heat, wind blown shoreline water is actually hot, the heat was skim from the hot surface across the lake.

That is my long version of saying I skunked today.

Edited by Bankfisher50 (08/11/1508:29 PM)

_________________________
Why do I go fishing? To catch a box of fish and/or some quality time under the sun. Thank Heaven I never fail fishing in Texas, catching box fish or plenty of sunburn.